A new interactive map of London showing where German bombs landed over the course of eight months during World War II gives new meaning to the word Blitz.
The entire greater city from Egham in the west to Dartford in the east, and from Potters Bar in the north to Caterham in the south appears to be obliterated by the red bomb symbols used to illustrate where a dropped bomb landed.
The year-long Jisc-funded mapping project, called Bomb Sight, has just been launched and was devised by geographer Dr Kate Jones, of the University of Portsmouth.
She said: “When you look at these maps and see the proliferation of bombs dropped on the capital it does illustrate the meaning of the word Blitz, which comes from the German meaning lightening war. It seems astonishing that London survived the onslaught.
“The Bomb Sight project demonstrates the clustering together of lots of different data using the power of geography.”
Dr Jones chose to focus on the period of the most intensive bombing period in London during WWII, the Blitz. In that period, Germany’s Luftwaffe killed thousands and destroyed more than a million homes. The Blitz ended, and with it the fear of a Nazi invasion, in May, 1941 when it became apparent that Britain’s spirit would not be broken.
The Bomb Sight project uses a slightly longer time-frame for mapping what bombs fell where because it uses maps of the London WWII bomb census, taken between October 1940 and June 1941 and until now only available to view in the Reading Room at The National Archives.
The locations of the bombs have been combined with geo-located photographs from the Imperial War Museum and geo-located memories from the BBC’s WW2 People's War Archive.
Users can manipulate the map and zoom into specific streets or boroughs as well as find out what type of bomb was dropped where.
Dr Jones won funding from Jisc to establish the project and has made the website and app available for public use to allow everyone, particularly students and teachers in schools and universities and citizen researchers to discover where the bombs fell and to explore memories and photographs from the period.
Paola Marchionni Jisc programme manager said: “Bomb Sight is a fantastic resource and it shows the power of what is possible by mashing up content that resides in different places. The original Blitz maps have been scanned and geo-referenced thanks to the National Archive and testimonials from the BBC have been incorporated together with historical images from the Imperial War Museum to create an interactive teaching and learning resource that is similar to a map sat nav. The augmented reality and mobile version is now available for Android users, making the resource even more interactive.”
The website allows people to find out where and what sort of bombs fell in their area, and explore photos and stories from those involved or affected by the war.
The associated Android app also gives users an augmented reality view which allows users to point their phone at a street scene and, using the phone’s camera and GPS, the app will display the bombs that fell nearby.
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Today, the Association of Colleges (AoC), GuildHE and Universities UK (UUK) along with Jisc’s non-executive directors and trustees take the first steps in leading the organisation into 2013.
Over the past 11 months Jisc has been moving towards becoming a separate legal entity and this week becomes a registered charity with a new board of non-executive directors and trustees.
Professor Sir Tim O’Shea, Chair, Jisc and Principal of the University of Edinburgh said: “We are delighted that we are embarking on a new phase of Jisc’s history; being owned by the communities that we serve and truly delivering against their needs.
“Our owners, funders and trustees will play a pivotal role in ensuring Jisc is leading the communities that we serve through our strategic pillars. These include providing a high performing digital infrastructure, developing online content and delivering practical advice and guidance that aligns with the needs of UK further education, higher education and skills sectors.”
The non-executive directors and trustees share their ambitions for what they see for Jisc’s future:
HEFCE welcomed the news of Jisc's achievement in becoming independent and a registered charity.
Prof Celia Duffy
Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Prof Robin Baker OBE
Director and Chief Executive, Ravensbourne, appointed by GuildHE
Prof Martyn Harrow
Chief Executive, Jisc
Prof Martin Hall
Deputy Chair Jisc – Vice Chancellor, University of Salford, appointed by UUK
Prof Noel Lloyd CBE
Retired Vice Chancellor, Aberystwyth University
Prof Paul Jeffreys
IT Director, University of Oxford
Prof Paul Layzell
Principal, Royal Holloway
Ms Heather McDonald
Chief Executive and Principal, Sheffield College, appointed by AoC
Mr Richard Boulderstone
Strategy and Information Systems Director, British Library
Prof Sir Tim O’Shea
Chair, Jisc and Principal and Vice Chancellor, University of Edinburgh
Andy Westwood
Chief Executive of GuildHE
Martin Doel
Chief Executive of AoC
Nicola Dandridge
Chief Executive of UUK
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JISC is moving to put its customers at the very heart of its activities during the coming year. This focus comes as the organisation reacts to the recent Wilson review into the way it works with the UK’s education and research communities and meet the demands of universities and colleges.
“With financial pressures every investment must count, and that is why we are focussing our efforts and activities to put customer needs at the heart of everything we do. Not only that, our customers need certainty – so we must be open and transparent around the products and services we will be delivering today, and what innovative technology we are creating for tomorrow,” said Sarah Porter, head of JISC innovation.
“We have been consulting with our customers and funders around their priorities. We know that every organisation faces pressures to ensure every penny spent is done in the most cost effective and efficient way to deliver results.
“With this in mind, we will be running a pilot scheme to develop our thinking and confirm our innovation product lifecycle. We will do this by working with professional associations and membership bodies across higher education, further education and skills,” Sarah said.
“We’ll be making it clearer how an idea moves from concept to reality and work to bring together the best in UK innovation and research talent to prototype and create products that enhance education and research.”
As a start on the road to meeting high priority needs, new opportunities and closer cooperation with the UK's education and research community, JISC has been in discussions with SCONUL, RLUK and the Research Councils amongst others. This is to address a number of priorities for universities and colleges through the development of resources, tools and supported infrastructure.
2013 will see the launch of the following significant projects:
“We are confident that these services and resources, provided by the highly experienced and professional team in JISC will make a real difference to our customers. We aim to be the ‘go to’ organisation for the sector, building on our already excellent reputation for technical know-how by adding a new and concerted focus on customer service,” added Sarah.
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The pilot, on the benefit of using educational online games and resources will run from January 2013 – December 2013 and will be made available via JISC Collections’ online catalogue.
Colleges will have the opportunity to review these games and resources from November 2012 until the end of 2013 and can sign up for online access or to license the software.
Ben Taplin, Licensing Manager, JISC Collections says:
“We are facilitating business models that enable further education colleges to subscribe to commercially-created interactive software and games. These will support teaching and be freely available to learners at the point of use. It seems like an obvious next step as many of the next generation of learners have been brought up in a very technological environment. We hope that they will find learning through computer games a challenging and engaging experience.”
JISC EMBEDDED OBJECT
(Duration 3:32)
The pilot follows work undertaken by JISC Collections early in 2012, when a number of interactive educational software and games suppliers, as well as representatives of 25 further education colleges, were interviewed to gauge the current extent and use of such software and online resources by the colleges. (A previous JISC survey (2006) had shown that only 10% of teachers in higher education/further education were using games or simulations, but that 70% would consider using them in the future.)
The interviews also sought the views of institutions and suppliers as to whether a licensing role by JISC Collections could potentially be beneficial. A significant percentage felt that such a role would be of value.
Ben continues: “At the end of the pilot we will seek feedback from the suppliers and those institutions that have signed up for any of the resources, to consider whether agreements should be further extended with the suppliers and whether additional interactive educational software products and resources could potentially be licensed for institutions.”
To trial the resources or sign up please visit the JISC Collections online catalogue.
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Accompanying image on homepage used courtesy of jared on flickr.
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Primal Pictures is available through JISC Collections.
Listen to the podcast (Duration 5:45)
JISC EMBEDDED OBJECT
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With competition for school leavers to secure employment intensifying, employers and students are looking to further education (FE) to get college leavers ready for the workplace.
JISC supports over 2,000 UK learning providers to utilise technology for an improved learner experience. During this week, the organisation will be showcasing the support they offer the FE and Skills sector, including:
How JISC's Regional Support Centres (RSCs) can aid teachers and learners
Guy Lambert, managing director of JISC Advance whose services support the UK FE and Skills sectors says:
“This year we are pleased to be funding a number of new projects which are specifically focused around improving employability skills for learners through technology. For example, Ashton Sixth Form College is producing an app to assist students with time management and self-organisation. Boston College of Further Education is helping to deliver cost effective IT apprenticeships in rural locations creating a number of new resources including online assessments, videos and interactive documents.
“These projects are in addition to our active network of RSCs and specialist services that provide a wealth of advice, guidance and training for college staff and learners on how to embed technology into the curriculum.”
Jolanta Peters, research and library services manager, from Somerset College says:
“JISC RSC South West has been pivotal in helping our college to harness new technologies by providing forums, workshops and continuous support with researching, implementing and using digital technologies in teaching and learning.
“They have helped us immensely with embedding digital literacy and providing greater accessibility and inclusion for all students thus enhancing their positive learning experience. There is this continuous need to identify, promote and support good practice in the use of digital technologies in the academic environment, - JISC RSC South West is an inseparable part in providing this continuity.”
Find out more about what our Regional Support Centres can do for you.
Visit JISC content portal for digital collections and archives for learning, teaching and research.
Follow @JISC on Twitter and follow National Colleges Week #collegesweek
Read our National Colleges Week blog posts
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JISC EMBEDDED OBJECT
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32 projects are to receive funding to develop new learning resources, practical approaches and open up opportunities for post-16 learning across the UK.
The successful projects are funded by JISC and managed by JISC Advance. These will run throughout 2012-13 and will focus on four key areas:
The 32 bids represent all countries of the UK and aspects of the UK further education (FE) and skills sector including work-based learning, adult and community learning, colleges and specialist providers. They also involve 90 partners drawn from across the sector and numerous local links and partnerships.
John Edmonstone, E-Learning Development Officer at Cardonald College, Glasgow said: "We’re delighted that the Moodle2Go project has been chosen to receive part of this funding to provide a range of mobile revision and reinforcement materials for learners. As a consortium of future partner colleges this is the ideal way for us to kickstart the partnership process."
Ian Southwell, Online Technologies and Accessibility Development Manager at the West of England College for Young People with Little or No Sight, said: “We are elated to receive the JISC funding which will help us to make online resources more readily available for our learners. This will help to improve their experience of working with technology. Our aim is to simplify access to technology as much as possible to assist this group of learners. We are also delighted that our work will be shared with other educational organisations to assist people across the UK.”
Susan Easton, Lead for Digital Learning at The National Institute for Adult and Continuing Education (NIACE), said: “This funding is fantastic news for NIACE. We have long advocated the ongoing development of digital capabilities for adult learners. With our partners, including the Workers Education Association, (WEA), Coleg Gwent and Bolton Metropolitan College, we see this funding as a real boost to our work, bringing real benefits to the FE and skills sector as a whole.”
The FE and Skills Development and Resources programme was launched earlier this year in response to the Government initiatives to improve learning across the UK – notably the Department for Business Innovation and Skills’ ‘New Challenges, New Chances’ report. There is a total of £1.4m to fund the projects.
Guy Lambert, Managing Director of JISC Advance commented: “We received an unprecedented number of bids which demonstrates how important technology is for the future of post-16 teaching and learning. JISC Advance is delighted to be leading this essential piece of work, making a significant impact to the FE and Skills sector.”
The FE and Skills Development and Resources programme is managed by JISC Advance. This programme is funded by JISC from its UK-wide FE funders as part of their core financial contributions - the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS), Scottish Funding Council, Department for Education and Skills Wales and Department for Employment and Learning Northern Ireland.
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Knowledge Base+ is a new shared service from JISC Collections that aims to help UK libraries manage their e-resources more efficiently.
KB+ is being established to start addressing the challenges facing libraries due to the inadequate data and metadata about publications, packages, subscriptions, entitlements and licences that is available throughout the e-resource supply chain.
The result is that libraries are spending too much time correcting and maintaining basic e-resource information and not enough time is left to undertake the sort of decision making that they would like to be conducting to improve services for users.
Sara Marsh, Director of Learner Support Services at the University of Bradford and Chair of SCONUL says: “The release of Phase 1 of KB+ is the realisation of many years' partnership working between SCONUL and JISC. It's a genuine example of a community-owned shared service which has been informed and developed from the start by practitioners who recognised a problem and set out to find a shared solution. I'm delighted to see the service now being launched, and SCONUL looks forward to building on this initial phase as the service is developed further over the course of 2012 and 2013.”
JISC Collections has been leading this work on behalf of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and JISC, drawing on its own knowledge and experience and the work of SCONUL and JISC to identify the shared e-resource management needs of UK academic institutions.
Richard Parsons, Director of the LLC and University Librarian at University of Dundee, says: “KB+ is planned to be used to manage the data across the consortium to permit substantial efficiency gains within the institutions. It will dramatically improve the accuracy, utility, maintenance and confidence of our subscription data. Correctly implemented we would expect to see some operations completed once for all 19 institutions in SHEDL.”
In addition to saving time and cost, KB+ will also provide benefits including:
Nicholas Lewis, Library Director at UEA, comments: “We anticipate that KB+ will have a marked impact on the way in which we manage our electronic collections, not just within the university, but also in our day-to-day liaison with publishers, vendors and agents. To this end, we are reviewing our workflows to take full advantage of KB+ from day one and look forward to seeing how it develops to more fully to meet the community’s needs in the months ahead.”
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Find out more on the JISC Techdis website.
Listen to the podcast (Duration 6:33)
JISC EMBEDDED OBJECT
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Leading organisations from across the further and higher education sectors have joined forces to create the a single hub for sharing best practice in green ICT.
Combining resources and experience from 23 of the country’s top sustainable development and education bodies, the Sustainability Exchange will pioneer the UK’s first centralised information portal and online community for the sector, sharing a wealth of information that is available to everyone.
It will provide a place for colleagues in different institutions to interact and share their sustainability experiences via community forums, news feeds, an events diary, best practice guides, toolkits, reports, research, webinars and videos.
Rob Bristow, JISC programme manager, said: “As founder partners of the Sustainability Exchange JISC has always been clear that a one stop place for sustainability information for our customers will be of real value.
“Sustainable development in a diverse sector such as higher and further education is a complex business, with not as many simple solutions as might be desired. The Sustainability Exchange will bring together sustainable development resources from across the higher and further education sectors and will allow senior managers in IT, estates and organisational planning, as well as those in sustainability roles, to have access to guidance and resources that will allow them to conceive of and deliver a sustainable future for their organisations.”
Universities, colleges and schools face enormous pressure from stakeholders and students alike to be as sustainably-minded as possible. This pressure, along with the need to comply with ever-changing legislation, means the demand for knowledge, discussion and debate on sustainable development is greater than ever.
“The dynamic sustainability sector, with constant updates to compliancy and new legislation means that the Sustainability Exchange adds value from day one,” explains Iain Patton, chief executive of the EAUC. “Accessible via a website portal, the Sustainability Exchange will provide colleges, universities and other education providers with information and resources that were previously unavailable to many and, most importantly, all in one place.”
Adam Van Winsum, environmental manager at Staffordshire University, adds: "It is such a fantastic resource, which will really benefit every department - estates, finance and academia alike. This is essential as we've seen the sustainability agenda widening out from what used to be typically managed by estates/facilities. I also believe that a wide range of sector colleagues will find it a very useful tool in helping drive the sustainable agenda."
The Sustainability Exchange has been created with the support of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) via its Leadership, Governance and Management (LGM) Fund. The EAUC and Staffordshire University have led a partnership of 20 other organisations in planning, managing and implementing the project, which promises to deliver greater efficiencies through the collaboration of educational institutions.
Search the Sustainability Exchange and join the community by registering now at www.sustainabilityexchange.ac.uk.
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Leading organisations from across the further and higher education sectors have joined forces to create the a single hub for sharing best practice in green ICT.
Combining resources and experience from 23 of the country’s top sustainable development and education bodies, the Sustainability Exchange will pioneer the UK’s first centralised information portal and online community for the sector, sharing a wealth of information that is available to everyone.
It will provide a place for colleagues in different institutions to interact and share their sustainability experiences via community forums, news feeds, an events diary, best practice guides, toolkits, reports, research, webinars and videos.
Rob Bristow, JISC programme manager, said: “As founder partners of the Sustainability Exchange JISC has always been clear that a one stop place for sustainability information for our customers will be of real value.
“Sustainable development in a diverse sector such as higher and further education is a complex business, with not as many simple solutions as might be desired. The Sustainability Exchange will bring together sustainable development resources from across the higher and further education sectors and will allow senior managers in IT, estates and organisational planning, as well as those in sustainability roles, to have access to guidance and resources that will allow them to conceive of and deliver a sustainable future for their organisations.”
Universities, colleges and schools face enormous pressure from stakeholders and students alike to be as sustainably-minded as possible. This pressure, along with the need to comply with ever-changing legislation, means the demand for knowledge, discussion and debate on sustainable development is greater than ever.
“The dynamic sustainability sector, with constant updates to compliancy and new legislation means that the Sustainability Exchange adds value from day one,” explains Iain Patton, chief executive of the EAUC. “Accessible via a website portal, the Sustainability Exchange will provide colleges, universities and other education providers with information and resources that were previously unavailable to many and, most importantly, all in one place.”
Adam Van Winsum, environmental manager at Staffordshire University, adds: "It is such a fantastic resource, which will really benefit every department - estates, finance and academia alike. This is essential as we've seen the sustainability agenda widening out from what used to be typically managed by estates/facilities. I also believe that a wide range of sector colleagues will find it a very useful tool in helping drive the sustainable agenda."
The Sustainability Exchange has been created with the support of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) via its Leadership, Governance and Management (LGM) Fund. The EAUC and Staffordshire University have led a partnership of 20 other organisations in planning, managing and implementing the project, which promises to deliver greater efficiencies through the collaboration of educational institutions.
Search the Sustainability Exchange and join the community by registering now at www.sustainabilityexchange.ac.uk.
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Now, new tutorials have been launched through the national JISC-funded data centre Mimas to encourage more use of this technology to inspire learners in the primary, secondary and further education classrooms.
The tutorials will help students apply their digital skills to a range of educational scenarios, from drawing conclusions about the Haiti earthquake crisis to understanding map coordinates.
Gail Millin-Chalabi, GeoKnowledge Project Manager at Mimas said: “The tutorials in Spatial Science for Schools provide an integrated approach for embedding images of the Earth for topics such as tsunamis, earthquakes, species extinction, floods, atmospheric circulation and contrast enhancement of images. Part of the Landmap vision is to educate the new generation regarding the use of remote sensing so that they are better informed of the application opportunities available to them.”
The tutorials are aimed at 9 – 18 year old pupils to encourage the use of remote sensing by teachers in geography, biology, mathematics, geomatics and physics lessons.
Kamie Kitmitto Landmap Manager said: “Landmap is hosting this website to contribute to the UK government agenda to promote science and technology in schools. The tutorials offer a range of possibilities for teachers to encourage pupils’ interest in natural sciences, mathematics or engineering through the user of fascinating satellite images.”
The tutorials were authored as part of the Fernerkundung in Schulen (FIS) Project, University of Bonn, and are funded by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, Germany.
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The videos, each with an interactive quiz, are predominantly aimed at further education colleges, but are available for anyone who needs guidance and inspiration on many different hairdressing procedures for their professional development.
Laura Skilton, hairdressing training service manager for Hairdressing Training, explains: “The new videos have been created by Hairdressing Training Tutors, meaning that they should meet the needs of both students and teachers, all in a format that is really popular. We are so proud that we can bring these resources together, free of charge through funding by JISC, and can now offer resources to cover the complete NVQ”.
Students have responded well to the online resource, which has had over 670,000 video views since its launch in September 2010. A site familiar to students, YouTube offers the ideal platform to reach this community. Feedback for the videos has been positive, with one YouTube viewer commenting: "Your videos are ... so easy to follow and understand. You make it so simple. Please keep up the good work!"
Hairdressing Training also encourages feedback from those who teach in hair and beauty courses across the UK. Jean Sullivan, campus librarian at Carmarthen College said: “I promote this resource during skills sessions to our Hairdressing staff and learners - the learners love it, especially the video aspect as they can play them on their phones when practicing on friends and family. I have actually had a few learners come back in to the library and ask me to remind them how to get back to this resource!”
The new videos have been produced by Manchester based company Lizardfish, in conjunction with The Manchester College.
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This week a UCISA survey, funded by JISC, shows that UK higher education has made notable progress in helping students and staff access library services, email and course announcements from their mobiles.
The sixth survey of technology enhanced learning for higher education focuses on the current provision of technology for learning within universities and colleges, and the emerging and planned patterns across the higher education community.
Encouragingly, the report reveals that academic staff knowledge is considered far less of a barrier to technology enhanced learning development than in other years, indicating greater progress with staff training and awareness of technology enhanced learning.
However, the top two barriers to technology enhanced learning development remain the same as those identified in the previous survey: lack of time and insufficient financial resources.
Heather Price, programme manager at JISC, said: "We are very pleased to have again funded this important biennial survey run by UCISA which explores the trends in technology enhanced learning. The findings of this survey always provide lots of very useful baseline information for the HE sector and this latest 2012 survey is no exception."
The survey results are available here for universities and colleges to use to benchmark their own work against national trends.
Sam Brenton, acting director of The Learning Institute, Queen Mary, University of London, commented: “The publication of this report is very timely for us and will be immensely useful. It's rare to see something of this scale that is done so well, and keys so directly into our in house conversations.”
Richard Walker, e-learning development team manager at the University of York and co-author of the report, said: “For this year’s survey report we included an additional layer of data on university mission groups, offering a different perspective on technology enhanced learning trends across the sector.
“The Survey sheds light on long standing areas of interest such as strategies and motivations for technology enhanced learning provision whilst touching on new concerns such as the economic climate that UK institutions are working in (post-Browne review) and how funding issues may impact on central and local support, on staffing provision, and training and development opportunities.”
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UK researchers’ and educators’ demands for high performance computing are now secured until at least 2022, thanks to an initial £30m e-infrastructure investment from the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the higher and further education funding councils.
Minister for Universities and Science, David Willetts, says: "E-infrastructure, including high performance computing, is absolutely essential to our research base, whether it's enabling scientists to carry out complex experiments or helping academics manage large amounts of data. This significant Government funding will be a real boost to our universities, colleges and schools and is part of a wider package of investment to ensure Britain's e-infrastructure is truly world-class."
The investment will build Janet6 the next generation of the UK’s national research and education network, adding value across the sector from high-end research to universities, colleges and schools. It will also enable research to stay competitive on both a national and international level, and support the £60bn contribution that higher education brings to the UK economy.
Tim Marshall, CEO of Janet, says: “We are delighted to be able to continue to deliver this fundamental platform for research and education. The move to a long-term fibre contract ensures that for the next decade we can provide maximum agility and scalability to meet customer demands, that will inevitably be unpredictable, as research and innovation takes place. The new operating model that we are embracing for Janet6 will allow us to do so very cost-effectively in these challenging times.”
Research shows that as institutions use innovative methods to deliver digital resources to their students, so their use of different devices over the network grows. The pattern of data across Janet shows that data usage doubles every 18 months and this is unlikely to change.
However, in addition to this normal usage increase, there will also be a ‘data deluge’ from data intensive research, which means that future network demands are set to increase. The high capacity network means that research in biomedical sciences, climate science and genomics can continue at current rates, even with the need for the transfer of large data sets, as well as high performance computing, that are needed for research and analysis in these subject areas.
Martyn Harrow, JISC Executive Secretary, explains, “JISC first started funding the Janet network in 1984 with 60 universities and the UK Research Councils. It now has over 18 million users across the UK and underpins the digital resources and activities across education and research. As an ex-director of information services and libraries I know how much colleges and universities depend on a robust and reliable network. Janet6 will provide network capacity from a starting point of two terabits per second and increasing over the next five years up to a staggering eight terabits per second or even more – placing the UK in an unrivalled position.”
A seamless transition to the new network, and a proactive approach to network provision where it’s needed, means that most customers should not see any disruption in service. The new network will continue to provide unseen yet essential support to the work of researchers and educators, enabling them to communicate easily and share large data sets across international boundaries.
The provider SSE Telecoms has been awarded the contract to provide the fibre for the Janet infrastructure in the largest UK deployment of its kind, this year. The Janet6 infrastructure will be based on Ciena’s platform, which will enable the network to easily scale from 100G to 400G and beyond as requirements change over time. Janet6 will be fully operational by October 2013.
Sir Alan Langlands, HEFCE chief executive, added: “Janet is a national asset of which the UK can be proud. As a vital part of our research infrastructure, the next version of the network will further improve links and collaboration between universities, strategic research organisations and others. It will not only add value to UK education and research organisations, but will underpin the contribution they make to the UK economy.”
Brian Gilmore, director of IT Infrastructure at The University of Edinburgh and a member of the Janet board, commented: “From experiences in my own university, and from colleagues across all parts of the education and research sector, I know that the provision of a network infrastructure which provides continuous reliability and has the capacity to cope with an ever increasing range of uses and amounts of data transfer is essential. Without it we cannot deliver all that the economy and our students require of us. It is vital that Janet continues to make sure that the most capable suppliers are providing the quality of service that research and education need.”
Janet6 has been developed in the context of the Government’s Public Services Network (PSN) programme, and as Janet6 unfolds, the Janet team will continue to work closely with the PSN programme to ensure maximum efficiency in public-sector ICT spend.
The Janet6 programme is aligned with, and co-funded by, the BIS e-infrastructure initiative. BIS investment in both the core Janet network and in extending Janet means that it can better serve additional data intensive research disciplines.
Read more about the Janet6 project and how you can benefit.
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The new survey report by the JISC-led Strategic Content Alliance, Digital Content for the First World War, based on a study undertaken by King’s College London, addresses these questions for the benefit of people managing digital resources in universities, libraries and museums.
The report argues that the Centenary of the War in 2014 offers digital content creators the opportunity to reappraise received notions of the experience and legacy of the conflict across disciplines.
For example, they might choose to create digital resources for aspects of the War that have been little explored - such as the global nature of the War, medical and nursing history and the study of wider economic and social issues.
William Philpott, professor of the history of warfare at King’s College London, said: “The findings of this report will prove of exceptional interest to scholars of the First World War. It identifies the diverse range of approaches to teaching about the Great War and demonstrates the enduring interests in the subject as the centenaries approach."
To draw attention to the breadth of underused content in often small and medium sized collections as well as to encourage collaboration between people working on them, JISC have also funded King’s College London to develop a new online resource UK World War One Collections. The database allows researchers and content managers to search for UK university, archive, library and museum holdings relating to the conflict, saving them time and potentially reducing duplication of effort.
Sarah Fahmy, Strategic Content Alliance manager, said: “By understanding the needs of academics and researchers studying the First World War, we are better placed to create and enhance content that will suit their educational requirements. This report and the database are valuable as they encourage content creators to ask the right questions before starting work on their digital collections.”
JISC is responding to the report recommendations by working strategically with other organisations and academics to create and enhance content – for example creating cross-disciplinary open educational resources that will offer the opportunity to reappaise the War and its social, historical and cultural ramifications through the University of Oxford’s ‘World War One Centenary: Continuations and Beginnings’ project and the Serving Soldier online collection at King’s.
JISC’s recent work with Wikimedia UK brought together academic experts and editors of Wikipedia (Wikipedians) to create and improve Wikipedia articles on World War One topics. It means that students, researchers and the public can now access accurate, consistent, wide-ranging Wikipedia articles that are as up-to-date as possible and there are now new links between Wikipedian and academic communities.
The report also highlights that to create unique and compelling digital content for the benefit of education and research, funders, content providers and other agencies need to work together. By building mechanisms for collaboration, any potential investment goes further and delivers better services for less.
Catherine Grout, JISC eContent programme director, said: “The forthcoming centenary of World War One provides us with a remarkable opportunity to utilise information and communications technology to provide researchers and students with unique insights into the ‘war to end all wars’. JISC shares a unity of purpose with other organisations across the UK to ensure that current and future generations of learners, teachers and researcher have access to the best that digital content and resources can offer, including providing access to many new and important resources.”
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Are you making the most of social media to support your students?
To celebrate our ten thousandth Twitter follower, we showcase some resources that can help you blog, tweet and interact your way to better student retention, marketing and teaching online.
While you’re staying up to date online, don’t forget to follow us @JISC on Twitter.
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Responding to the recommendation, new work funded by JISC and the Wellcome Trust on behalf of the Open Access Implementation Group (OAIG) will look at how we can help universities manage the charges efficiently and also what role an intermediary might play in making the process work smoothly.
The new study will build on the OAIG’s earlier findings:
The request for proposals and full project specification are available. Please contact David Carr at the Wellcome Trust with any queries.
Neil Jacobs, programme director at JISC, said: “This work will be an important step forward in helping universities and other research organisations prepare for open access publishing. We envisage that an intermediary role might help publishers, funders and research organisations by reducing transaction costs, speeding up payment of APCs and ensuring an efficient and competitive market in Gold OA.”
The deadline for proposals - which should be sent to David Carr - is 5pm on 31 July 2012 and we will be able to share more after the work has been completed in the Autumn.
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As it’s our job to not only deliver for you today but to future gaze on your behalf so that you are in a better place to make decisions, we’ve structured the latest edition of JISC Inform around that topic. We welcome your comments both on individual articles and by email to informeditor@jisc.ac.uk
Along with the events, features and advice that you’ve come to expect, in this issue we’ve pulled together our predictions for the future, including wise forecasts from key people you’ll recognise as strategic thinkers.
Here are our recommendations of what to read.
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Research students need more face-to-face and informal support tailored to their own subject area to help them embrace open web technologies and social media fully, according to the UK’s largest study of doctoral students commissioned by the technology consortium JISC and the British Library.
The Researchers of Tomorrow project surveyed 17,000 doctoral students over the course of its three year longitudinal study to set a benchmark for the research behaviour of so-called Generation Y students born between 1983-1992. Read the study online or download itThe final year of the study looked in detail at researchers’ use of social media applications within the research setting, and it found that, over the three-year period, there has been only a gradual increase in use of the social web and social media, which may seem surprising considering our increasingly digitalised culture.
For example, 23% of all the students have made passive use of online forums, but only 13% have taken an active part in any discussions: 23% followed blogs, but only 9% maintained a blog themselves. Active take-up of institutionally-provided open web resources is also low, with students requesting more information about technologies and applications such as Google Scholar, cloud computing, EndNote and Mendeley.
Louisa Dale, senior relations and support manager, has been overseeing the final phase of the study for JISC. She says: “We want to make sure that everyone within a university - from the blogging vice chancellor to the researcher connecting on Twitter - can and does utilise the latest technologies, to inspire and transform higher education and research.
“Research students and their institutions can benefit from our toolkits and resources to guide them through the process of sharing their work online.”
Maja Maricevic, head of higher education from the British Library, said: “This study is important for the British Library. We want our services and help for researchers to reflect on-going changes in the research environment. The findings present us with a challenge of working collaboratively across research support landscape to provide digital resources that are relevant and linked to high quality tailored support that is informed by researchers’ needs.”
Other findings from the report include a continuing lack of understanding about the nature of open access. Generation Y students felt that putting their own work out openly will bring them no positive benefits, and may even have a negative impact. Equally, doctoral students’ understanding of the intellectual property and copyright environment appears to be a source of confusion, rather than an enabler of innovation. The debate about open access continues to be prominent in the media, and JISC and the British Library will continue to engage with researchers to ascertain how attitudes might be changing.
The study also highlighted a marked dependency on published secondary sources rather than primary sources, such as archival materials and data sets, as the basis of students’ own original research, regardless of discipline.
The full data will shortly be open for others to delve into to see what they can extract from the research.
Read the report online or download it
Listen to a podcast with Julie Carpenter, the report author (Duration 8:16)
JISC EMBEDDED OBJECT
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Today JISC launches three resources to help universities and colleges to implement e-portfolios effectively at scale created from successful practice from the UK, Australia and New Zealand. The materials explore the ways in which you can help to boost learner achievement, enhance employability and even support the development of new courses.
Key messages from from these resources have been synthesised in to a short guide, ‘Crossing the Threshold’ , which summarises the issues and benefits experienced by pioneer institutions and provides signposts to key aspects of the resources.
JISC programme manager Lisa Gray says that a review of both the toolkit and supporting videos gives a thorough, accessible introduction to implementing e-portfolio tools.
She said: “What shines out from the case studies is the enormous potential that e-portfolios offer, and the benefits that they deliver to students over and above what they might achieve on their own, via Facebook or some other platform.
“Many universities, colleges and professional bodies, are now exploring the potential of e-portfolios on a wider scale, but there have been few attempts to share good practice and celebrate successes.
At Southampton Solent University, the e-portfolio system called Mahara, has been integrated with the virtual learning environment to enable students on media courses to give full rein to their creative abilities and sell themselves to future employers.
Fiona Burton, careers advisor at Southampton Solent University, said: “Employers say they can’t find graduates with the appropriate skills. Using an e-portfolio they’ll be able to evidence those skills.”
The University of Wolverhampton is another example of an institution that has been exploring more innovative approaches to e-portfolios, and has found that learners studying remotely can evidence their achievements and experiences more clearly, and achieve qualifications via an e-portfolio system such as PebblePad.
In addition to developing short courses for employees of local businesses, the university has launched a new undergraduate law degree that is being delivered entirely through an e-portfolio tool.
Explore the toolkit and video case studies
Read Crossing the Threshold in a format that suits you
JISC have also recently released an effective practice guide for institutions that explores ways how they can respond flexibly to the need of a broader range of learners and meet the opportunities and challenges presented by lifelong learning called Effective Learning in a Digital Age.
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JISC welcomes the ‘Accessibility, sustainability, excellence: how to expand access to research publications’ also known as the Finch report, published today. The Report examines how to expand and improve access for everyone to international peer-reviewed research.
Martyn Harrow JISC executive secretary says, "JISC believes that publicly-funded research should be made available as widely as possible. We work with universities, funders, researchers and publishers to make this happen.
"This report provides a clear direction of travel towards open access, and we look forward to working through the UK Open Access Implementation Group to support and pursue these recommendations. The report also stresses the potential of extended licensing and JISC’s existing expertise in this area will be invaluable,” he said.
Martyn continued, “Finally, the report notes an important and continuing role for repositories, and the work needed to improve that infrastructure. Again, JISC will work with partners to continue to address this. In combination, these recommendations will mean that more people and organisations will have greater access to UK and worldwide university research than ever before.
“JISC particularly welcomes the suggestion that JISC will play a key role in gathering and analysing data that indicates progress in the transition to open access. We have a strong role to play on behalf of the research community and the university sector in ensuring the best possible advice, information, guidance and tools are available to share their knowledge in this area.”
JISC Collections negotiates national license and content agreements for UK colleges, universities and schools to ensure access and value for money for journal content providing economies of scale and quality resources. JISC also provides guidance on how to set-up your own research repository and to support your journey to adopting the right open access route for your research and your organisation.
Find out more about open access
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Kuali OLE, one of the largest academic library software collaborations in the United States, and JISC, the UK’s expert on digital technologies for education and research, announce a collaboration that will make data about e-resources—such as publication and licensing information—more easily available.
Together, Kuali OLE and JISC will develop an international open data repository that will give academic libraries a broader view of subscribed resources.The effort, known as the Global Open Knowledgebase (GOKb) project, is funded in part by a $499,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. North Carolina State University will serve as lead institution for the project.
GOKb will be an open, community-based, international data repository that will provide libraries with publication information about electronic resources. This information will support libraries in providing efficient and effective services to their users and ensure that critical electronic collections are available to their students and researchers."This Kuali OLE – JISC partnership adds momentum to our efforts to create an open library system and offers benefits to all participants. We are pleased at the way our projects have come together toward a common goal, and look forward to sharing the results widely,” said Deborah Jakubs, university librarian and vice provost for library affairs at Duke University and co-chair of the Kuali OLE board.
Robert H. McDonald, Executive Director of Kuali OLE, says, "With the start-up of the GOKb Project, Kuali OLE as an organization is showcasing the strengths and opportunities that come from deep collaborative engagements with our peer academic libraries both in the US and in the UK. The role for libraries in collaboration around electronic content can't be dismissed. Libraries need better supply-chain options for our electronic content management workflows and the GOKb Project will provide solutions.""Nowhere are the advantages and possibilities of data better understood and more keenly felt than in academic libraries,” says Rachel Bruce, JISC Innovation Director. “Data underpins the services and systems that libraries provide to their students and researchers.”
The GOKb cloud service will provide data for “subscribed resources” from a higher education perspective. It will include data such as publication information, related organizations, and model licences, and will be accessible across all US and UK academic libraries.Many of the concerns libraries have in the management of electronic resources are the same across the world. Indeed, there are a number of projects, such as the Kuali OLE (Open library Environment) in the U.S. and the Knowledge Base+ service in the UK, that are exploring community-based solutions.
Kuali OLE is a community of nine research libraries working together to build the first open-source system designed by and for academic and research libraries for managing and delivering intellectual information.Among JISC's objectives are to provide cost-effective shared national services and resources and to help institutions improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their business systems.
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A JISC study (PDF) has found that learners develop a variety of digital literacies often through a social trial-and-error process, without the direct support or advice of their educational institutions.
Ben Showers JISC programme manager said: “By understanding and recognising students’ hidden behaviours and motivations, JISC is in a position to help universities and colleges develop better digital services and resources, with the student experience significantly improved.”
Watch a video interview with the two project leads David White (University of Oxford) and Lynn Silipigni Connaway (OCLC Research)
To understand learners’ engagement with digital technologies, JISC is now funding the next phase of the project which uses the concept of visitors and residents to describe their online journey.
The visitor sees the internet as a toolbox that they use for a specific task and then leave the web without leaving a footprint. The resident partially lives out their life online; they see the web as somewhere they can express themselves.
It’s the next phase in a longitudinal study into US and UK learners at different stages of their education in a partnership between the University of Oxford and OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc., in collaboration with the University of North Carolina, Charlotte.
The study says that there is now a learning ‘black market’ where learners use non-traditional sources of information online, which may lack academic credibility. While these practices can be effective for their studies, students are often wary of citing such resources.
Gaining an understanding of these emerging practices will help ensure that projects and institutions provide effective advice and guidance in the ongoing development of digital skills.
Ben Showers said: “It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the Visitors and Residents work. It is not only challenging assumptions about how students use technology, but it is shedding light on those practices, attitudes and techniques students employ online.”
There are more intriguing findings from the study, including that LinkedIn becomes more important to people in the later stages of their education; that there is more skepticism in the US than the UK education system over students’ use of Wikipedia; and that students prefer email over instant messenger and other tools for ‘administrative’ tasks such as contacting a researcher.
“We are very excited to continue this work,” said co-principal investigator Lynn Silipigni Connaway. “We believe our preliminary findings will have a great impact on the development of services and systems for teaching and learning.”
“The project is discovering the extent to which the embedding of the web in both personal and institutional contexts is changing the way we learn, teach and research,” said co-principal investigator David White. “We are delighted to be able to explore this further and to have the opportunity to create resources that can be used to reflect on, and experiment with, new forms of professional practice.”
Find out more about the project and read the latest report
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